Fallout: Ascension
by snickerslv100
Summary: Humanity was engulfed in a nuclear firestorm and tempered by their poisoned world, yet still they survived. After withstanding such a brutal trial, the people of Earth reached heavenward to escape their plight, and traveled among the stars with a tenacious zeal. How will this version of Humanity fare against their bitter foes?
1. From the Ashes

**Disclaimer: Any material that could potentially be considered infringement of copyrights and trademarks should be considered the property of their respective creators or owners and you are reading this of your own freewill, so please refrain from doing so if you don't like graphic violence, explicit sexuality, pop culture references, vulgar language, polygamous relationships, random plot twists, character deaths, snakes, arranged marriages, or usage of drugs. Of course, some of those things may not even end up in the story, but I'd rather be better safe than sorry. Also, I tend to give cannon the proverbial finger.**

**Story Notes: This is a work-in-progress plot blurb without a definite direction for the plot as of now, so I'm perfectly open to suggestions. Reviews containing constructive criticism and praise will certainly speed up the updating; flames make my ego spontaneously implode with my muse following close behind, so try and refrain from that if you can. I'm writing this to flex my creative side and refine my writing, so don't be surprised if entire chapters get completely changed after they're initially uploaded. There are many clichés and stereotypes in fanfiction because it's been around for so long; I try for originality in my own way, and will likely give a shout-out to whatever other story gave me a basic idea or concept, though I've been reading for a long time and will likely forget where something came from.  
**

**Side Notes: This chapter is entirely comprised of a timeline, codex entries, and author notes. The actual narrative will begin on the next chapter.**

* * *

1961 CE: Captain Carl Bell of the United States Space Agency became the first human in space. This claim is disputed by both the Soviet Union and China. Captain Bell's flight in Space Capsule _Defiance 7_ lasted twelve minutes and seven seconds, and made a full revolution around the Earth. Bell died when the capsule crashed on its return to Earth.

1965 CE: By this year, the United States is divided into thirteen commonwealths; each of which encompasses several states. The national flag is changed to reflect this and depicts fourteen stars - thirteen in a circle to represent the commonwealths and one in the middle to represent the federal government and the nation as a whole.

1969 CE: The Virgo II Lunar Lander _Valiant 11_ with USA astronauts Captain Richard Wade, Captain Mark Garris, and Captain Michael Hagen lands on Luna. The astronauts become the first humans to walk on a celestial body other than Earth.

2037 CE: The Mister Handy series of robots is first brought to market as a general construction and maintenance unit by General Atomics International.

2052 CE: The socially transmitted 'New Plague' arises, killing tens of thousands. The United States closes its borders and the first-ever national quarantine is declared. The source of the plague is unknown, but rumors persist that it is a genetically engineered weapon. West Tek starts working on a new virus to kill the New Plague, using information provided by their parent company, Tricell.

2055 CE: In light of the European-Middle Eastern War and the plague scare, the United States officially sets Project Safehouse in motion. The project, financed by junk bonds, is designed to create shelters, called Vaults, for the populace in the event of a nuclear war or deadly plague. Construction begins late in 2054 and proceeds rapidly due to advances in construction technology.

2057 CE: The first artificial intelligence is born. Limited by memory constraints, its expansion is rapidly halted. The discovery paves the way for future A.I. research in laboratories throughout the United States.

2059 CE: The Anchorage Front Line is established, as the United States increases its military presence in Alaska to protect its oil interests. The Anchorage Front Line causes tensions between the United States and Canada, as the United States attempts to pressure Canada into allowing American military units to guard the Alaskan pipeline.

2060 CE: Traffic on the streets of the world stops moving. Fuel becomes too precious to waste on automobiles, so alternatives are explored - electric and fusion cars begin to be manufactured, but factories can only make limited amounts while conserving fuel. The US economy teeters on bankruptcy. Pressure on fusion research increases.

2063 CE: The construction of most Vaults is completed, except for Vault 13, whose construction finally gets off the ground heralding a development cycle that seems plagued with problems. Drills begin in the other cities with completed Vaults, but the increasing frequency of the drills has a 'cry wolf' effect, and the turnouts for drills trickle off as the years go on.

2065 CE: Shortages of food occur around the world, and riots for this precious commodity begin breaking out in major cities all across the world. With the world's resources getting dangerously close to depletion, many governments and corporations begin scrambling to explore and colonize space. The National Guard makes use of Sentry Bots to quell the riots.

2066 CE: Increasing need for mobility in the United States mechanized cavalry leads the military to focus the efforts on creating a man-based tank; essentially, a two-legged walking armored unit: power armor. Several prototypes are developed, many of which prove to be unworkable in the field. These prototypes pave the way for future advances in military, construction, and fusion technology.

Spring: As the oil resources dry up across the globe, China's fossil fuel dependency causes an energy crisis in the nation. China, bordering on collapse, becomes more aggressive in its trade talks with the United States. The United States' unwillingness to export oil to China leads to a breakdown in talks between the two countries.

Summer: Adding further insult to the Sino-American relations, the first crude fusion cell is unveiled, one of the results of the power armor project. Devices designed for the fusion cell begin to be manufactured. Incorporating fusion power into the general US infrastructure begins, but the process is too slow to supply power to the regions that need it. Nearly eleven years later, few sections of the United States were supplied with fusion power.

Winter: China invades Alaska. The Anchorage Front Line becomes a true battleground. As a sign of increasing tension between the two countries, Canada proves reluctant to allow American troops on Canadian soil or allow American planes to fly over Canadian airspace. American and Canadian tensions rise, but Canada eventually backs down, and US troops pass through Canada.

2067 CE: The first suit of T-45d power armor is deployed in Alaska. While lacking the full mobility of future versions, this power armor is incredibly effective against Chinese tanks and infantry. Its ability to carry heavy ordnance becomes key in various localized conflicts, and it has the power to destroy entire towns without endangering the wearer. China rushes to create its own versions, but they are many years behind the United States.

2069 CE: Canada begins to feel the pressure from the United States military as the US draws upon Canadian resources for the war effort. Vast stretches of timberland are destroyed, and other resources in Canada are stretched to the breaking point. Many Americans refer to Canada as Little America, and Canadian protests are unheard.

2070 CE: Billionaire Victor Manswell of Ultor Incorporated, frustrated with the pace of official human space exploration, begins funding his own private spaceflight expedition.

2072 CE: The United States' increasing demand for Canadian resources causes protests and riots in several Canadian cities. An attempted sabotage of the Alaskan pipeline is all the military needs as an excuse to finalize its annexation of Canada.

2073 CE: As China becomes increasingly aggressive with their use of biological weapons, the United States government felt that a countermeasure was needed. The Pan-Immunity Virion Project is officially formed and plans are made to begin experiments at the West Tek Research Facility in Southern California, before being moved to the Mariposa Military Base.

2074 CE: Negotiations between the US and other world powers come to a dramatic end, with the president walking out of oil talks with the other world powers. After a much heated debate, the president stormed out of the meeting and declared that the last known supply of petroleum will be used exclusively by the US and the US will not sell or trade any oil to outside parties.

2075 CE: The Manswell Expedition successfully launches from Earth en route to the Alpha Centari system with 300 colonists aboard in cryogenic stasis. It also boasts multiple GECK's and numerous robots to help with colonization. Contact is lost soon after.

2077 CE: FEV Research is leaked to the world through an unknown source. Protests arise in many major cities and governments around the world, as well as accusations that the US was responsible for the New Plague. FEV is seen as the threat, and serves only to fuel tensions. The governments of the world fear what the US is up to. Speculating anything from trying to make a breed of super soldier, to trying to make Hitler's master race, they begin to panic.

2078 CE: The Nuclear Apocalypse occurs. The first effects of radiation are seen in the survivors. Widespread mutations occur with animals and humans alike. Those that survive the effects of the mutations are permanently changed. New species are created almost overnight.

2102 CE: Richard Grey's expedition finds the Mariposa Military Base and is summarily scattered and defeated by the mutant inhabitants. Grey is knocked into one of the vats of FEV by a robotic arm. Richard Grey, now horribly mutated by the virus, crawls from the vat, covered with FEV and in terrible pain. Richard Grey begins to acclimate to his condition, and begins his first tests of animals by exposing them to FEV. These experiments and his growing awareness lay the foundation for his plans for the Unity and the master race. He takes the name 'the Master'.

2141 CE: The Vault Dweller is born. He is most famous for defeating the Master and his super mutant army, helping Shady Sands grow into the New California Republic, founding the small village of Arroyo.

2189 CE: The New California Republic (NCR) is voted into existence as a sprawling federation of five states: Shady Sands, Los Angeles, John Maxson, Hub and Dayglow. The Enclave resumes work on various Prewar technologies, including power armor variations. None of these are much of an improvement over the conventional old power armor, and some are actually worse.

2221 CE: The Chosen One is born. He is most famous for repairing the AI Skynet in the Sierra Army Depot, defeated the New Khans gang and struck a deal with the freed locals to bolster the NCR, thwarted the plans of the Enclave to rid the wasteland of 'impure' humanity, and formed the settlement of New Arroyo with the help of the old Arroyo tribals and Vault 13 dwellers. New Arroyo joins the NCR eventually.

2235 CE: The Enclave experiments on Deathclaws, attempting to create special fighting units for waging war in hostile environments. Enclave scientists and chemical corps scour the remains of Mariposa, while assault squads comb the desert for slaves they can use to excavate the military base and get to the FEV vats.

2240 CE: An Enclave team of researchers, physicists, and mathematicians working in secret developed the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, a practical means of propelling spacecraft across vast interstellar distances. This new engine allowed ships to tunnel into 'Slipspace'. Slipspace is a domain with alternate physical laws, allowing faster-than-light travel without relativistic side-effects. Faster-than-light travel is not instantaneous; 'short' jumps routinely take up to two months, and 'long' jumps can last six months or more.

2255 CE: The Warrior, a tribal initiate into the Midwestern splinter group of the Brotherhood of Steel, infiltrates Vault 0 into the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado. There, he battles a supercomputer connected to several human brains that is controlling an army of robots hellbent on erasing all forms of life on the planet. After crushing one of the brains, the Warrior offers up his own, and ends up taking over the supercomputer and robot army for the good of the Brotherhood.

2256 CE: The Unified Central Republic (UCR) sees new laws that are strictly enforced by the newly bolstered Brotherhood; laws that ease humanity back into civilized life through total unification. Discrimination is outlawed and many prejudices are eliminated and soon forgotten as the task at hand becomes apparent; humans, ghouls, super mutants and deathclaws all work together to begin transforming the wastelands into a post nuclear utopia. The combined knowledge of the Brotherhood and Calculator's databases are a powerful tool for reshaping the world and no time is wasted. Technology is slowly re-introduced into the land; irrigation systems are established bringing water to the barren soils for the first time in decades.

2277 CE: The Wanderer activates Project Purity and brings clean and free water to the people of the Capital Wasteland. He also comes across a mutant tree and increases its rate of germination, saves the slaves of the Pitt and increases their resistance to radiation, and writes the Wasteland Survival Guide with the help of Moira Brown. With the help of an East Coast contingent of the Brotherhood of Steel, forms the Capital Trade Federation (CTF) and sweeps over the Capital Wasteland, the Commonwealth, Point Lookout, Ronto, and the Pitt.

2281 CE: The Courier, fair and even-handed in her dealings throughout the Wasteland, was honored by the NCR for her support of the military at Hoover Dam. she was presented with the Golden Branch, the highest civilian decoration given by the Republic. She discovered the Sierra Madre casino and used its incredible wealth to help the NCR war effort, saved the New Canaanites of Zion and got them to pledge allegiance to NCR, and saves the Big Mountain Think Tank and gets them working for the NCR.

2285 CE: The NCR, UCR, and CTF finally discover each other when their rapidly expanding borders meet. After a skirmish between the Courier and Wanderer, all three nations agree to form a peaceful trade alliance with each other, and all adopt the UCR's policies on mutated beings.

2287 CE: A joint task force of people from both the NCR and CTF infiltrate Enclave remnants in Topeka, Kansas. They discovered intelligent Deathclaws beyond the hairy variety and Super Mutants capable of sexual reproduction, as well as schematics for the Vertibird and Hellfire Armor. They also came across a spacecraft equipped with the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, several Garden of Eden Creation Kits (GECK's), a nuclear fusion reactor capable of fueling the craft, and a veritable army of robots as a source of cheap labor.

2289 CE: The American nations are contacted by various other nations that have risen up after the Nuclear Apocalypse such as the Holy Brittannian Empire, The Fourth Reich, the New Soviet Republic, the People's Republic of China, which survived the Nuclear Apocalypse due to their enormous population, and the Empire of Japan. All of these new countries join together into the United Earth Nations. Policies on intelligent Deathclaws and Super Mutants are assimilated into all the nations of the world.

2290 CE: The Wanderer and Courier get married, and the nuptials are celebrated all over the world by anyone that ever met either important historical figure: they were clearly made for each other.

2292 CE: The United Earth Nations sends the spacecraft discovered in Kansas City to Mars, betting all their time and effort on the colony being a success. Upon arrival, the colonists and robots on board immediately began terraforming the planet with GECKs, creating an agrarian community that rivaled Prewar Earth in beauty. The city of Lowell is founded, and thrives under the supervision of the UEN.

2295 CE: Mothership Zeta is discovered floating just outside the atmosphere, and another of the Lone Wanderer's adventures are discovered and largely publicized. The technology of the ship is salvaged, leading to advances in cryogenic stasis, genetic engineering, automated manufacturing and production, energy weapon and shield technology, and computer systems. This also made it readily apparent that Humans weren't alone in the cosmos, allowing paranoia to spread amongst the colonists.

2300 CE: The Enclave ship makes trips between Mars and Earth once a month, for years, bringing more and more people to the largely red planet. More ships are created based on the technology of the Enclave, Think Tank, Calculator, and Mothership Zeta, allowing an even faster rate of transferal between the planets.

2307 CE: The first Artificial Intelligence after the Great War is created through unorthodox means: the AI matrix is actually created by sending electric bursts through the neural pathways of a Human brain which are then replicated in a superconducting nano-assemblage in a process known as Cognitive Impression Modeling. This destroys the original brain tissue however, and so the brain being used could only be obtained after the host had died.

2315 CE: A mysterious electrical surge occurs on Mars, granting all robots on the world sapience. The United Earth Nations decide to offer the robots citizenship to their member countries, and are graciously accepted in their offer. The robots begin taking control of their own production and maintenance, allowing future generations of automatons to also be granted sapience.

2350 CE: The population on Mars surpasses that of Earth, and the city of Lowell becomes the center of Human/Ghoul/Super Mutant/Deathclaw civilization. The United Earth Nations are re-purposed into the United Nations Space Command to honor the fact that Earth no longer plays a prominent role in Human affairs. (For reference, the Wanderer is 91 years old.)

2390 CE: The colonization of the Inner Colonies was fully underway. There were 21 human-occupied worlds in various stages of terraforming, and the population burden across human-controlled space was largely stabilized.

2468 CE: The outer colony of Harvest is founded, becoming the 17th UNSC colony and the farthest that colonists have been from Earth. The _Tiara_ space station is constructed.

2490 CE: Expansion continued at a rapid pace, and human space encompassed more than 80 worlds throughout the Orion Arm of the Milky Way, all of which were fairly well-tamed planetary strongholds. Outward expansion continued, and the Inner Colonies become a political and economic stronghold, though they relied heavily on raw materials supplied by the Outer Colonies. During this period, the planet Reach (orbiting Epsilon Eridani, right on Earth's metaphorical doorstep) became the UNSC's primary Naval yard and training academy. Reach was a major producer of warships and colony vessels, as well as a training ground for covert operatives and Special Forces.

2525 CE: Contact with Harvest, an outer colony, is lost shortly after the colony itself had made contact with an unknown object. The Colonial Military Administration sends the scout ship _Argo_ to investigate...  
_

CODEX Entries:

Calculator: A cybernetic-organic hybrid supercomputer utilizing pseudo-cryogenic stored brains maintained in an oxygenated tank fed specifically formulated nutrients to sustain suspended life. The neural network was also meant to assist in Vault 0's primary function: to initiate humanity's post-war rebirth. When the outside temperature, radiation levels and poison particle counts returned to acceptable levels, Vault 0 was to remotely activate the Exodus protocol, which would initialize the integration of all vault dwellers with the planet's surface.

Additionally, the Calculator was entrusted with an army of robots that it could use to assist in the protocol. However, it was a plan that never came true. The Calculator became corrupted due to fatal errors in its CPU and data storage systems (human brains). The cybernetic machine became a mad personality, whose goals turned rather homicidal. The eight brains it was linked to were of an Evangelist (the warrior killed this brain mercilessly and replaced it with his own), a pornstar, a lawyer, a doctor, a game designer, an artist, a scientist, and a politician.

Deathclaw: Bipedal oviparous reptilians that are diurnal carnivores. As bio-organic weapons designed to replace humans in close quarters combat by a pharmaceutical corporation sanctioned by a Prewar Human government centuries ago, they became apex predators after the Nuclear Apocalypse, standing nearly ten feet tall and possessing tough scaly hides, razor-sharp claws, venomous fangs, and powerful muscles. They are the successful results of cross-species genetic engineering: a combination of chameleon, Komodo dragon, Nile crocodile, and Human being. After exposure to Forced Evolutionary Virus over several generations, they gained human-like intelligence and speech capabilities before joining the citizenry.

Enclave: The Enclave is a secretive political and military organization who are descended directly from members of the Prewar United States government, and claim to be the legally-sanctioned continuation of the government while styling themselves as such. The Enclave comprises mostly descendants of government officials and military elite, and some others such as those with ties to powerful corporations who retreated to the Poseidon Energy Oil Rig during the Nuclear Apocalypse.

Forced Evolutionary Virus: Also known as FEV, this virus is the result of paranoia among Prewar governments prior to the Nuclear Apocalypse. Top brass thought the other side would use powerful, genetically engineered super-viruses that would decimate other armies and civilian populations without a single shot being fired. In response, the West Tek research facility began the Pan-Immunity Virion Project to bolster American immune systems. It was determined that altering the subject's DNA in such a way that its dual helical structure transformed into a quadruple helical structure would render the recipient immune to almost any known or engineered West Tek's testing phase of the PVP in 2075, abnormal side effects were observed developing in the test subjects. The test animals began to grow dramatically larger in size and muscular structure, and their brain activity increased. Seeing the potential military applications of these unexpected results, the U.S. Army sent its own military scientists into the facility to secure the project. And the rest is, as they say, history.

Komodo Dragons: Mutated giant lizards found commonly in the Midwest. As the komodo dragons are originally from the island of Komodo, Indonesia, and were not naturally found in the United States before the Nuclear Apocalypse, they likely originated from a zoological garden. Since then, their size has nearly doubled to twenty feet in length and weighing approximately four hundred pounds. They have septic pathogens in their saliva that are standalone killers. They also secrete a powerful toxin which causes blood clotting, lowering of blood pressure, muscle paralysis, and the induction of hypothermia, leading to shock and loss of consciousness in envenomated prey.

Mutated Crocodilia: In the swamplands of what used to be Florida, the Brotherhood of Steel discovered a primitive community of bipedal reptiles that were waging a war against giant mutated pythons. Only capable of communicating in frequencies too low for humans to understand without special equipment, the creatures were left alone in the swamps to face their problems, and largely forgotten. While not as fast as Deathclaws, these creatures more than made up for it with their raw power.

Nuclear Apocalypse: In 2077, tensions were high due to the Resource wars, but it all broke the first sentient Artificial Intelligence, codenamed Skynet, instigated a single day war, in which a considerable portion of the world's nuclear arsenal was used. The nuclear firestorms engulfed cities, the devastating payloads shifted fault-lines, the nuclear winter killed off some life that couldn't adapt, and the radiation mutated most that survived. New species appeared overnight, most of which began to dominate the new food chain.

Think Tank: They were responsible for the gestion, decision making and management of all experiments in Big MT, each in their respective domains under the direction of Klein. After the Great War, a new project started, with the purpose of preserving the Big MT executives by transforming them into a special brain bot called a Think Tank, allowing them to continue their work indefinitely. They were 'reprogrammed' to forget a part of their personality and their name, giving them a new one and enforcing a recursion loop in their perception programming. With that, the Think Tank was created and with nobody to stand in their way, their research continued in Big MT, becoming more sinister and debauched as the years went by.

United Nations Space Command: More commonly known as UNSC, it is the militaristic and scientific agency of the United Earth Nations. The UNSC has held Human territory together over the course of the Martian Rebellion, the Interplanetary War, and the Insurrection War. There are also rumors that they have extensive research into, and have begun experimentation with, powerful biological weapons from the Prewar era such as FEV.

* * *

**A/N: There are some references to other series, but the main duo for now is Halo and Fallout. This story is inspired by _From the Ashes_ by erttheking. Except this is with Halo, not Mass Effect. For now, anyway...**


	2. First Contact: Ground Team

**A/N: I admit to taking several liberties with the source material from both the Fallout and Halo franchises. The biggest is how the Covenant responds to the presence of the UNSC, but there are also other minor details that are different simply for the sake of my own entertainment. Like, the reason behind East Coast Super Mutant growth, or the location of the Forerunner artifact on Harvest. Also, somebody mentioned that I was ignoring the earliest Fallout games in favor of the newer ones, which was true. Now, however, I've spent some time researching and think this will turn out well. I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

Captain Maribeau Veredi looked out a nearby window on the bridge of his ship, the destroyer class UNSC _Heracles_, with a determined glint in his eyes. The other two frigates that accompanied his destroyer, the UNSC _Arabia_ and UNSC _Vostok_ respectively, were covering his ship's flank as the trio glided toward the agrarian world of Harvest. They were sent as reinforcements to the colonial militia, an advance fleet before the enormous defense flotilla from Reach arrived in a few hours.

Immediately upon exiting slipspace and coming upon the previously scenic view of a peaceful farming colony, the captain noticed an unknown space-faring vessel with obviously advanced technology dropping off a small army of alien soldiers and vehicles onto the planet through the use of some kind of tractor beam device (Gravity Lift), and the invading troops were scouring the heavily populated city like beetles invading an anthill. Undoubtedly, the captains of the other two ships noticed as well.

The sight of the oblong and bulbous ship, appearing to have an almost organic form, made the captains feel very uneasy. This single enemy vessel dwarfed even the largest UNSC ships that Veredi could think of off the top of his head, and the army it was unleashing had to have 'manpower' in the thousands. A lot of civilians would be dying soon, unless they could come up with a plan to turn the tides of battle to their favor. The only problem was that their obvious priority target, the spaceship that was annihilating everything around it, would not go down easily.

The incredibly large ship appeared to be a hybrid of a carrier and battleship class ship from the formidable firepower it wielded. Due to the unknown ship's sleek design, every shot, no matter what angle they came from, appeared to be nothing more than glancing blows, illuminating the alien vessel with the tell-tale shimmer of a powerful energy shield, as it was shrugging off all the Tesla Cannon shots, plasma bolts, and laser beams being fired by Harvest's orbital militia and sentries. That shield was way beyond their own models in terms of sheer resilience.

The amount of power it would take to fuel a shield capable of covering a ship that size was a terrifying prospect to dwell upon, but so were most of the things mankind had fought in the past. The denizens of the UNSC were a hardy people, surviving a nuclear apocalypse and its nightmarish aftermath quite easily.

Sara, the AI (Artificial Intelligence) of the UNSC _Heracles_ spoke up for the captain's benefit, "Captain, that ship is broadcasting an IFF (Identify Friend/Foe Device) that shows its designation as a CAS-Assault Carrier. According to Mack, Harvest's Smart AI in charge of agricultural operations, its hull is made of an unknown material and it's 17,540 feet long, 6,850 feet wide, and 2,300 feet tall." A shudder of fear ran down Veredi's spine as he confirmed that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, which he was vehemently hoping for.

"What in the hell are we up against?" muttered the red-haired captain. He cupped his bearded chin with one hand as he looked down on a scene straight out of a Prewar Hollywood action movie.

The assault carrier, obviously some sort of flagship from its enormous size, was in the planet's lower atmosphere, but still large enough to be seen from their distant vantage point. The purple ship's many turrets rapidly fired pulse lasers and plasma torpedoes at Harvest's orbital and aerial defensive forces with pinpoint precision and accuracy. There were showers of Archer Missiles raining down on the enormous spacecraft, but they were detonating prematurely due to infrared point defense lasers guarding the vessel.

Unfortunately the ship was too close to a heavily populated city for Super MAC's (Magnetic Accelerator Cannons) to be effectively aimed at it, and Mini Nukes (Miniature Nuclear Bombs) weren't viable because the radioactive fallout would be dangerous so close to a predominantly Alpha (Normal Human) settlement. The assault carrier was firing off powerful lances of energy over the urban battlefield, glassing every building and vehicle in its sight. There was no way that anyone caught in such a blast could survive.

The captain's fist clenched, and a plan of action was starting to form in his mind already, but it was tentative at best for the moment.

A swarm of the alien's analogue to fighter jets were blotting out the sky around the massive flying fortress, duking it out in an intense dogfight with the planet's orbital Sentry Bots and a squadron of Longsword-class Interceptors from the nearby carrier UNSC _Legion_. The teardrop shaped fighters were carving swaths through both the atmosphere and empty space beyond the atmosphere, smoothly transitioning from one to the other with apparent ease, and showing off agile maneuvering.

The window that the captain was watching this through lit up with a HUD (Heads-Up Display) showing that the fighters were called Seraph-class Starfighters. He briefly wondered why they were broadcasting their IFF's so casually, but then wondered if they'd ever dealt with AI as capable as the UNSC's.

He groaned for a short moment before speaking up, "How did this situation come about in the first place?" Inwardly, he wondered if these new aliens had simply ignored the greeting that they were allowed by the First Contact Protocol, which mandates the best possible first impression be made. Hopefully these wouldn't be as hostile as the Zeta aliens that the Wanderer encountered a couple centuries ago, back in 2277, but their actions at the moment were making such a possibility seem less and less likely every minute.

"They weren't immediately hostile, and a peaceful meeting on the surface of Harvest was arranged. Attorney General Rol Pedersen and Captain Ponder of the colonial militia represented the UNSC. One of the alien representatives killed a recruit of the colonial militia present in cold blood. A firefight broke out, and the assault carrier had been pouring out aliens ever since. The whole time since then, they broadcasted a message on every channel and frequency for communication in plain English," answered Sara.

The commander of Battlegroup 4 continued looking down at the enormous alien vessel for a brief moment."Play it for me," he said slowly.

The artificial intelligence's avatar nodded, and let it play. "_Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we, the Covenant, are their instrument_..." It was an ominous message, one that made the captain frown. If this so-called Covenant wanted to erase the UNSC from the galactic map, they'd have to do a hell of a lot more than what they were currently doing. Sure, that ship they sent was impressive, but did they really think that a single ship could take an entire colony by itself? Clearly they didn't realize how heavily armed the civilian population was on top of the substantial military presence that every piece of UNSC territory had.

"The _Tiara_ space station is currently under hostile control, but a team has been sent to remedy that," said Sara. "The _Tiara_ is the only viable way to evacuate civilians; the sooner we reclaim it, the sooner we can focus our attention solely on the enemy. However, the team assigned with that is comprised of SPARTAN-I's, so the odds of them failing are pretty slim..." mentioned the AI.

Nothing about this situation was predictable, and he had to come up with a plan of action soon. Within moments, he came up with an idea. "Sara, assemble the ground team and tell them to gear up for an infiltration mission. Send a message to the _Vostok_ and _Arabia_, telling them to do the same. If we can't punch a hole in that monstrosity from the outside, we'll just have to do so from the inside," he said slowly. That was the only course of action that they could take that he could think of at the moment.

The fact that a lone ship could survive for nearly half an hour against the immense onslaught it was weathering was alarming to say the least, but hopefully that would be changing soon.  
_

Sergeant Avery Johnson of the UNSC Marines slowly released his breath and pulled the trigger of his Sniper Rifle, propelling a ferromagnetic projectile forward at supersonic speeds by accelerating it through a process of magnet induction via electromagnetic coils. The 14.5x114mm Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot round went straight through the shield of an enormous ape-like alien (Jiralhanae) and ripped its head clean off. "Man, what a Brute," he muttered under his breath, noticing the creature's size. Shaking his head, he called out, "God I love the smell of freshly splattered alien brains in the morning," his teeth still chewing on his cigar.

He and a small squad of élite operatives were tasked with the monumental assignment of retaking the Orbital Space Station _Tiara_, so that civilians could safely evacuate off-world. Right now they were killing off the ground forces at the base of a Space Elevator, the peripheral apparatus used to travel from the surface of Harvest to the platforms of _Tiara_. This one was the most reasonable of the six for his team to hit, since it was currently the least defended. He was currently over a mile away, providing ranged support for the heavy hitters to get in close enough to do their jobs/hobbies.

The ace sharpshooter smirked, knowing that his amazing skills combined with the raw power of his Anti-Material Rifle were a force to be reckoned with. As a graduate of the Naval Special Warfare Sniper School, his accuracy and precision were practically unparalleled among his Alpha brethren, though there were a few others that could match his caliber. To illustrate this point, he fired another round, which punctured another energy shield and blasted a hole through the bird-like being's (Kig-Yar) head.

Beyond his natural talent and the specs of his gun, there was more to him buried beneath the surface. He was technically a Cyborg, also colloquially referred to as an Aug, someone whose physical or mental abilities were extended beyond normal human limitations by either cybernetic elements built into the body. These included, but were not limited to, electronic, mechanical, and robotic prosthesis and implants.

He was imbibed with a hypertrophy accelerator, an optics enhancer, a nociception regulator, an empathy synthesizer, a logic co-processor, a reflex booster, a probability calculator, an adamantine skeleton, and a reinforced spine by the ORION Project, a secret program designed to create real-life super-soldiers, also known as SPARTAN-I's. They also fitted him with a neural lace running VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) which increased his accuracy and chances of landing a critical strike exponentially. Already a swift learner, he went through intense training as both a Sniper and Commando to gain the finesse that he now possessed.

He could easily handle the kickback of an incredibly high-powered sniper rifle, breathe out the exact amount to make shooting easy, identify targets from incredibly far away, and hear any enemies trying to flank him from a fair ways off. Add onto that the PHOENIX monocyte breeder and enhanced Hellfire armor implants, and he could take a severe beating even without being sheathed in the ablative ceramic plates of his tactical combat armor or the Zeta shielding that encased that. Through the magnified scope of his rifle, Johnson watched a yellow-skinned Meta (Super Mutant) over a mile away from his position chuckle at his joke, which was being broadcasted over the team's com buoy, before it hefted a Gatling Laser with its enormous arms.

"No more games, time to die!" screamed Fawkes, the fabled companion of the Wanderer, as he unleashed a furious storm of laser beams onto a nearby and very unlucky group of the stocky creatures (Unggoy). "You're just a bunch of Grunts!" exclaimed the enormous guy as he continued killing all that were unfortunate enough to catch his attention. He was losing himself in the primal parts of him born in a civilian nuclear bunker, slipping into the famed blood rage of the Capital Wasteland's brand of Super Mutant.

On the other side of the battlefield, back with our illustrious sniper support, another sharpshooter was perched in a tree to the Sergeant's right, taking aim with a Beam Rifle that he picked up from the fallen corpse of a bird-like enemy (Kig-Yar). The Necro (Ghoul) was also a known associate of the Wanderer, even inheriting the renowned shocksword of Jingwei, a Prewar commander of the Chinese army. Charon lined up a shot and grinned before pulling the trigger, savoring the thrill that coursed through him.

As the beam emanating from his salvaged weapon passed through the avian being's head at the speed of light, the particles transferred their kinetic energy to the atoms in the molecules of the targeted impact rapidly super-heating it in the process. This began searing a hole right through the expanding flesh and cauterizing the wound, all at the same time, with a concentrated stream of ionized particles. The Particle Beam Rifle in Charon's hands was nearly silent, giving off a negligible muzzle report as it passed through its target and the cover it was hiding behind completely, shearing through everything in its path to leave a relatively small, though still quite lethal, wound in its prey.

Johnson whistled in admiration, of both the shot taken and the weapon used, before giving a jaunty salute to his stoic companion. Charon was the only Necro that the Sergeant knew of that had cybernetic enhancements, even on top of a prosthetic right arm and left leg. The story of how he lost those body parts was legendary, and involved both a hungry Wanamingo Queen and Alpha Deathclaw. Between Charon's centuries of combat experience and the cybernetic enhancements that he received, he was an incredibly deadly character, one that even Johnson had qualms about going up against in a no-holds-barred fight.

The two long range support units of the team were playing a game with each other, though this fact was never voiced aloud. It essentially amounted to who-could-kill-the-most-enemies, but it involved VATS. Essentially, if they could finish off their opponent before they ran out of AP (Action Points) more times than their partner, the person with the least consecutive kills owed the other person a drink. They called this game the Grim Reaper's Sprint, and it was a popular mental exercise to use by Vault Dwellers trying to survive in the wastes back in the day.

Shaking his head, the Sergeant got another shot off, this one nailing three of the Unggoy simultaneously after slicing through the hull of a strange alien vehicle that was floating just above the ground like a daredevil fighter pilot, gliding along like a purple Ghost over the uneven terrain. Its driver dropped what had appeared to be a bladed grenade launcher (Brute Shot) after losing control of the vehicle and crashing; he'd need to get his hands on one of those puppies soon. Charon upped the ante by hitting an idle fusion coil, taking out another purple floating thing that was zooming by, the fragments of debris from the explosion incapacitating even more enemy infantry units.

He then turned his attention back over to Fawkes, and saw something awe inspiring: after seeing his entire squad of Unggoy mercilessly massacred by the coarse-skinned giant, the captain of said Unggoy, a saurian warrior (Sangheili), began charging at Fawkes while dual-wielding Plasma Rifles, firing off a hailstorm of superheated plasma at a rate of nearly four hundred and fifty rounds per minute. The Sergeant kept an eye on the situation, but the Meta noticed that the enemy's weapons' accuracy was piss poor, letting his personal energy shield absorb the blasts that actually managed to hit him, while aiming his unique Gatling laser at the eight foot tall Sangheili. As the inner mechanisms of his weapon began whirring, the invader tossed aside both overheated rifles, throwing an orb emitting a blue vapor at Fawkes and whipping out a vibrant blue blade.

The orb landed right on the Meta's immense chest, where it stuck. The ionized gas was burning away at Fawkes' shield for three seconds, more than enough time for him to get a few lasers off and drain the enemy's shield further, before before detonating in an enormous azure fireball. Fawkes' energy shield shattered from the devastating payload, making him stagger backward and take a knee with a stunned look on his face. The enormous and iconic Gatling laser clattered to the ground and spun away, even as the powerful squad leader of the invading army sprinted toward him.

This creäture he was fighting was clearly head and shoulders above the Grunts, whose burn riddled corpses littered the ground; it was an Elite. It was an opponent worthy of fighting Fawkes even when lost in his blood rage, and Johnson whistled yet again in so many seconds. He knew that the Meta would fetch his hide if he killed it by blowing its head off from over a mile away. He'd let the Meta take care of this one by himself, for his own sake if nothing else.

Fawkes groaned, "Ouch, that hurt!" The mammoth and ancient Meta staggered back onto his feet, and the approaching creäture didn't even falter in its pursuit. It likely didn't expect any living thing to be able to survive the impact of the Covenant's favored Anti-Personnel Grenade, but the Sangheili were honor bound to never even twitch in the face of adversity. It just clenched its quadruple-hinged jaw shut, and concentrated on covering as much ground as possible. No matter how durable the beast, the superheated ionized gas of his Energy Blade had never failed to end its life.

Between the Zeta shield and Meta power armor, on top of the sheer resilience of the Overlord stage in East Coast Meta development, you got a walking tank that only got more angry when explosives went off in its face. While Johnson knew that it was unusual for Metas to be given power armor or Zeta shields simply due to their imposing physique and natural damage resistance usually being enough to carry them through a mission, he also knew that Fawkes was no ordinary Meta as well. He too, was a product of the Orion Project, though there wasn't a need to augment him any further.

They just provided him with his equipment.

Johnson watched mesmerized as the Elite continued forward with the grace of a raptor, the hardened muscles expanding and contracting furiously to pump his digitigrade legs into a mad dash. With a massive leap, the theropod-looking soldier was airborne, his predicted motion path ending right in front of Fawkes with the enormous being's chest in range of the ethereal sword. As he soared closer to the disoriented giant, his tetradactyl hand tightened on the ergonomic handle of the most sought after mêlée weapon in the entire Covenant, and prepared to lunge forward upon landing into a nasty stab that would-

But his tactic was flawed from a lack of information. What he didn't realize, which wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been rushing into battle, was that Fawkes had a sidearm on him. In fact, the gargantuan hominid had two, though they were hidden through unconventional means. Re-quiping specially crafted tri-beam laser rifles from into his left and right hand from the data bank of his Pip-Boy 4000, the Meta began repeatedly pulling the trigger of his semiautomatic energy weapons as fast as he could. The incredibly high-powered beams of red light tore through the Sangheili's already wavering shield, eviscerating the split-lipped alien even as it continued its descent.

The Sergeant released a breath of air he was holding, and turned his attention back to the hordes of aliens that were converging on the Strike Team's location. He took a clean shot, this one hitting one of the alien plasma grenades, detonating it prematurely before it even left its owner's hand, but after it gained its ionized cerulean glow. The resulting explosion managed to remove an Elite's shield and kill four of the Grunts. "A general rule to follow: if you see something with teeth bigger than its face, shoot the son of a bitch!" he called out gleefully. Even as he did so, an excellent shot by Charon caught the frazzled Sangheili unaware right between the eyes, sending him to the same place as his newly deceased subordinates.

Half a battlefield away, Fawkes, holstering his two deadly weapons, walked over to the now dead Elite that'd given him such a hard time. The primal rage of his people no longer pumped through his veins, and he knew that placing himself in intense combat situations would always remind him of his old friend, and allow him to reach a unique battle zen that few others seemed capable of attaining. Turning, he picked up several of the alien's unusual grenades and pocketed the deactivated Energy Sword, deciding to keep the obviously powerful device as a trophy.

He then retrieved his Gatling Laser and went to work mowing down more invaders. Johnson grinned. Fawkes really was a weapon of nature, needing only to be pointed in the general direction of their enemies before utterly decimating them. Turning his rifle to monitor the other heavy operatives, he drew in a puff of air through his cigar, feeling the smoke tickle his insides. Most people seemed to think that smoking was a dirty habit, a reminder of the vices that still plagued the desolate wastes of Earth. In his opinion, those people were bitches.

The Sergeant turned his scope over the battlefield, surveying who needed covering fire the most, until he came across a battle between four Unggoy and a beautiful blonde woman. She was Samantha Lyons, a dangerous CQC (Close Quarters Combat) specialist. With one hand covered with a ballistic fist while also handling a ripper with ferocious glee and the other held a XBR55 Battle Rifle, a prototype weapon. She danced through her enemies indiscriminately, her lithe body sheathed in the armor plated powered endoskeleton that increased her mobility threefold and her durability tenfold. Her Mark II Hellfire Armor, the surface of which gleamed in the distorted light of her Zeta shield, had the sigil of the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel's most renowned contingent, Lyon's Pride, in honor of her grandmother, Sarah Lyons.

A tiny army of Unggoy were swarming toward her position, but she received aid in the form of an aerial Sentry Bot. It was floating just above the rapidly moving blonde woman, spraying rounds from its Gatling Laser and Gatling Gauss to level the playing field against the Grunts' sheer numerical superiority though the onslaught was still fast approaching. The Sentry Bot was also firing off guided missiles and rockets that were damaging various alien vehicles that were operating withing half a mile of it, but the heavy tank-like machines (Wraiths) were sustaining fire easily. Its shields were taking heavy fire, until eventually it dropped to the ground in the center of a deep trench leading to Samantha, crushing several Unggoy in the process and blocking the easiest path to the woman.

Many of the Grunts scrambled down into the man-made valley spitefully, hoping to get their licks in on the surely doomed robot. Many ambled right up to it, thinking that it would be a much easier target now that it was grounded, especially when surrounded on all sides by earthen walls. They unwittingly funneled all of their numbers into the naturally confining space of the trench's tight corridors without a second thought, severely dampening their numerical advantage.

If they believed that the fight was over, or that it would be easier to take the sapient robot on in a fight, they were sorely mistaken. If their cries of fear and pain intermingling with the revving of auto-axe and ripper motors were any indication, they were realizing this fact a little too late. The Sentry Bot deployed a repulsion field behind it, blocking any of the repentant Unggoy that followed it down from escaping, and their screams intensified. In an electronic voice, the Sentry Bot mocked, "And I haven't even begun to use my plasma torch yet," upon which words, said welding tool activated at full throttle.

Several explosions of ignited methane breathing apparatuses later, the trench was saturated with the azure blood of Unggoy, and the air was clogged with the stench of burning flesh shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, Samantha delivered a devastating uppercut to the closest Grunt, setting off the pressure plate of her ballistic fist and releasing a thunder-clap of energy. The legacy of the Lyon's Pride used the recoil from the 12 gauge bullets to pivot to the side, jamming her chained blade into another Unggoy's face. A fountain of light blue blood cascaded off of the squat alien, drenching its remaining two teammates and blinding them with its life fluids. The golden-haired femme fatale then flipped over the slowly dying being's body, using its hunched frame as a springboard, and fell on to the third with a falling axe kick.

She literally stomped its face in, crushing its delicate exoskeleton without breaking a sweat, before activating the repulsion device embedded in the soles of her boots. The miniature localized force-field expanding from her footwear blasted her flexible body backward at breakneck speed, allowing her to snatch a Covenant plasma rifle off the ground. Even as she swiped the exotic weapon off the ground, she performed a backhand spring mid-flip to land in a crouched position over a dozen feet away from the thoroughly obliterated Unggoy she started her stunt at. She loved her jet boots.

Her normally lustrous golden hair was matted down with filth and sweat, and a surprising amount of enemy blood. But she grinned victoriously, before noticing a small horde of advancing irate Unggoy. Led by a furious Sangheili, the group of hostiles were approaching her position with the hopes of avenging their comrades. Oddly, she thought the stubby ones would be plagued with cowardice, but they seemed to be willing and able-bodied cannon fodder. Sighing, Samantha re-quipped two M7S Caseless Submachine Guns from her Pip-Boy 4000, and began a game of spray and pray shooting tactics as she retreated.

Johnson decided to help her out and took the saurian captain's shield down, just as Charon vaporized its head, leaving her to make short work of the remaining Grunts with her backup weapons, and he just couldn't stop admiring the dexterity of her kills. She also had similar implants to his own, but boasted prosthetic legs equipped to deal with the force of her jet boots. This made her perfect for getting up close and personal, even allowing her to exchange fisticuffs with Metas that were nearly double her own size, as long as she could use Tae Kwon Doe.

She sidestepped an alien plasma grenade, its blue aura flickering against her face as it flew past her. Samantha bolted forward, constantly firing into the throng of enemies and bathing the ground in their blue blood. She pirouetted and tossed a plasma grenade of her own, timing it so that both explosives detonated simultaneously, one in front of her and one behind. A sapphire sphere of destruction erupted behind her, eliminated the already minimal chance of being flanked from behind, while the emerald flames of rapidly expanding ionized gas engulfed the rest of the invaders in her immediate vicinity.

The Sergeant, who was almost an entire mile away, whistled. She was reflecting the afterglow of both explosions with her shield, wreathing her in an ethereal halo of cool iridescence. She smirked and turned in the general direction she knew him to be in, and winked before turning and darting off into the mangled underbrush. She planned to employ guerrilla tactics against the forces besetting the Sentry Bot that saved her firm ass earlier.

Johnson realized something about the enemies and decided to inform everyone else, speaking as clearly as he could into the COM Link, "Listen up everyone, the little stubby Grunts seem to become disorganized and confused without a leader, whether it's the ape-like Brutes or dinosaur-looking Elites. They only attack one at a time or run away; take out the squad captains!" There was a chorus of affirmative noises to signify that his fun fact was acknowledged, and he went back to looking over the battlefield.

Upon performing a cursory scan of their operational battlefield, he came across the image of Wrex fighting two Brutes. Wrex was a genetically engineered Deathclaw super-soldier, grown and educated in an artificial womb of pressurized biogel, he knew nothing more than the nutrient rich soup of his tank and the needles that injected him with steroids to promote growth. The Alpha Deathclaw was fitted with a personally modified suit of power armor that also boasted a zeta shield and a shoulder mounted plasma rifle turret.

He was a brutish hulk, noticeably larger and more aggressive than his contemporary brethren. Whether this was from his status as a naturally occurring Alpha Deathclaw or his artificial development in a tank was unknown, but the supposed Death Sense that some members of his species had seemed heightened even further with him. His hide was scarred through intense training, and he was one of the few known specimens of the chimeric monsters that had poisoned claws, known as Talons of Fear by his brethren.

One of the Brutes was dual wielding the alien analogue of one-handed shotguns (Mauler), firing round after round into the Deathclaw's wavering shields, while the other kept firing off grenades from its Brute Shot. A blast of green plasma left Pluto's automated turret, splashing against the grenadier Brute's powerful overshield, giving just enough of a distraction for Pluto to leap forward in the iconic death-grab of his species, slicing and dicing the enemy as if the shield weren't even there.

The ONI operative manning a sniper rifle over a mile away shivered slightly. The fabled claws of Deathclaws were renowned for being so sharp and durable that they essentially ignored armor and shields, and he wondered how anybody in the wastes of days long past could survive in a 1v1 (one-on-one) CQC battle against the chimeric beasts. Those things were intimidating, that was for damned sure.

The Brute managed to mitigate the damage of the monster's flurry of mêlée attacks by somehow rolling with the blows, growling in anger and punching Wrex directly in the face, while simultaneously unloading an entire clip of Mauler rounds into its armored and shielded chest. Johnson's jaw dropped at the audacity. The Deathclaw reacted by chomping down on the Jiralhanae's thick neck with serrated fangs and the bite force of a crocodile, injecting the poor fool with septic pathogens and powerful venom. Exactly how the big monkey's body would handle the concoction was unclear, because the tank-born predator twisted its head in a facsimile of a crocodile's roll-of-death, ripping out its throat in one fell swoop.

While this short exchange was happening, the remaining Brute took aim with its aptly named Brute Shot, callously putting its comrade in harm's way and preparing to pull the trigger, but the Jiralhanae stopped when an enormous and mangy thing slammed into him and began tearing at him with its powerful claws. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Pluto," said a woman's voice over the intercom. She was Gilly, though Johnson forgot what her real name was. As a descendant of the Shi nationals that ruled over San Francisco, she had the gorgeous features of a mixed Asian-Caucasian woman.

Just after the crunch of ripping out the Jiralhanae's throat, the Deathclaw's gravelly voice replied, "It's about damned time." While it was generally understood that Deathclaws hated outside help in their battles, they had a wary sort of respect for people with Gilly's special abilities. This was emphasized by how calmly he responded to the oriental woman's assistance. "But did you really only bring a Yao Guai?" he asked crisply as he stalked over to the battling entities.

The remaining Jiralhanae was growling in desperation, slashing at the enormous mutated polar bear that was pinning him into a corner with its sheer bulk, leaving no room for him to maneuver. The giant ape was suddenly eviscerated from behind by a tempered steel sword. He slowly turned to look at his new attacker, and realized that he was just assassinated mercilessly by a female with exotic features. He crumpled to the ground in a pool of his own dark purple blood, wondering how much of a disgrace to his clan this death must be.

The woman grinned and said, "Well, Blizzard is technically a Giant Yao Guai, being a polar bear and all." She was wearing a modified variant of the stealth armor equipped by the prewar communist superpower's élite commandos, the Crimson Dragoons. Not only did it naturally cloak her whenever she was crouched, but it also muffled the sounds of her elegant movements. She too had numerous implants enhancing her already amazing body, and the rigorous training she endured boosted her guile to unprecedented levels.

Gilly was renowned throughout the UNSC under many titles, many of which were not suspected to be the same person. For instance, many Insurrectionists tell urban legends of the Seductress, an accomplished espionage agent renowned for her activities as both a Black Widow and Cherchez La Femme. Her bewitching demeanor, magnetic personality, ensnaring appearance, smooth talking, and certified mastery of the Kama Sutra allured members of all races. This gave her abundant opportunities to strike her sexually compatible targets.

As a master of the light step and silent running, she never set off traps or alerted her marks to her presence unless it was already too late for them. Her paralyzing palm and piercing strikes gained her the epithet Iron Fist, and her infamy as a night person that has the capacity to easily kill unsuspecting targets that were asleep got her Miss Sandman. There were also rumors floating around that she was secretly a ninja, even though the Shi originated from a Chinese submarine that docked in San Francisco.

Her prowess in the art of stealth got her another nickname, though this one was purely among members of the ORION Project: Gilly. It was an oblique reference to a Ghillie suit, a _heavily_ camouflaged outfit which relies on actual leaves, twigs, and other such elements to aid in avoiding detection, in addition to the standard asymmetrical patterns of a normal camouflaged military uniform. Ghillie suits were often worn by élite sniper elements in the military for maximum stealth and concealment in battle, before the Hei Gui stealth armor became as important as it was.

"Whatever you say, Beastlord," replied Wrex. That was her moniker among the Deathclaws, for her ability to telepathically control most animals. It was a unique ability that she was gifted with from birth, something originating from the Midwest of the post apocalyptic United States. Johnson remembered a vague account of a group of people calling themselves Beastlords that were terrorizing the area around Chicago prior to the Brotherhood of Steel's Midwest division taking up the mantle of protecting the city and its surroundings.

It was a formidable power indeed.

She ex-quipped the ancient steel weapon in her hand, storing it away in her Pip-Boy 4000 for future use. She grinned and re-quipped a XBR55 Battle Rifle as she climbed bareback onto the Yao Guai, using it like a warrior princess to make a dramatic entrance to the front line. Just because she was a master of stealth, didn't mean that she would necessarily be using that skill; things got too boring for her when she just sneaked around all the time. Looking down at her mount as she touted her newly materialized Battle Rifle, Gilly grinned and said, "C'mon Rex. Let's go get you some more dinner."  
_

Ripa'Moramee, the Shipmaster of the CAS-class assault carrier _Serene Grace_ and the Arbiter of the Covenant, was pacing back and forth on the bridge of his ship as more and more reports came in. His forces, the Covenant's forces, were being held back. The creatures inhabiting this planet were fierce warriors, of that he was certain. What made him feel uneasy, was that these beings were not using technology derived from known Forerunner devices, even though the Luminary said that this world was a treasure trove of artifacts.

His mandibles twitched in frustration. Not only were these things blatantly overlooking the precious gifts of the gods, but they were desecrating them by treading lightly on the holy world that contained such relics. They were also successfully keeping the Covenant's ground forces from advancing any farther on the surface of the sphere. The high-ranking Sangheili general was simply baffled by this; something about this situation felt off, and things weren't adding up when he took a step back and looked at the bigger picture.

Normally, the Arbiter of the Covenant is sent on the most perilous and daunting missions in desperate times when he is only truly needed. These important and classified missions are often tantamount to suicide, a way to regain a family's honor if one tarnished it somehow. In fact on those missions, the Arbiter is expected to die and be revered thereafter as another great martyr of the Covenant on their path to the Great Journey.

Whatever these primitive beasts were, they were incredibly capable and possessed battle prowess just as great as his own species, and the San'Shyuum acknowledged this fact by assigning this mission to him. Ripa'Moramee's orders were to capture as many Forerunner artifacts as possible for study, then exterminate every single one of the creatures that soiled the revered planet with their presence.

It seemed like a waste, to commit genocide against a race of clearly incredible warriors simply because of their ignorance, but the Arbiter knew never to voice such heretical and treasonous thoughts aloud; to question the ultimate authority of the Triumvirate of High Prophets was akin to denouncing everything they stood for and desecrating the beliefs of his ancestors.

His fist clenched momentarily, but slowly released as he thought everything over. The Luminary showed that there was a Forerunner installation hidden somewhere in the center of the planet's super-continent, but it was going haywire with the thousands of artifacts that were littering the surface of the treasure-world. He clenched his hand again as he thought furiously on the matter, wondering what it was that he was was some factor or variable that stayed just out of sight, and he could feel the epiphany dancing across the edges of his mind and tickling the tip of his tongue. He growled and looked at his fist, wondering if there would be any honor gained at the end of the day.

Total annihilation of a sapient race was always a possible course of action when one was in charge of Covenant forces, but these people weren't even aware of their transgression. Time alone would be the deciding factor in this delicate operation, and it was swiftly running out. He had to finish before these beings called for backup; he wasn't sure of this new enemy's might, but they were capable of holding off Covenant ground forces for an extended period of time.

A small part of him wondered why the planet was so heavily guarded, despite being a lonely outpost. Sure it seemed to be an agricultural powerhouse from what their scans showed, but there was no token garrison of colonial militia guarding the planet: it was an army and fleet worthy of battle against a CAS-Class assault carrier, and all of the units it could unleash onto the battlefield. Over the ship's intercom, he intoned, "Release the Mgalekgolo and Yanme'e. Let us see how these heathens deal with them..."

* * *

CODEX:

Alpha: The designation given to 'normal' homo sapiens is actually Alpha-Human, since they were the first race of Humanity to come about. This has been shortened to just Alpha for the sake of expediency, and it is generally agreed upon that Alphas are the most frail and short-lived of the three divergent routes of biological human beings, though they also have the highest population due to an fast birthrate compared to their compatriots. As the highest in manpower and political importance for their representatives, they tend to wield the most influence in public forums.

Cyborg: Someone whose physical or mental abilities were extended beyond normal human limitations by either cybernetic elements built into the body. These included but were not limited to electronic, mechanical, and robotic prosthesis. Cyborgs should not be confused with Androids; the former are augmented humans while the latter are robots designed to imitate humane appearance and behavior.

East Coast Super Mutants: There were five categories East Coast Metas, the legacy of Vault 87's twisted experiments. They all grew larger and stronger with age seemingly indefinitely, growing to monstrous proportions. They were first tentatively dubbed Grunts as soon as being initially changed, then reaching the next stage of their life cycle to become Brutes, before growing into beings colloquially referred to as Masters, then evolving into a hulking Overlord, before finally undergoing a very noticeable metamorphosis into a gargantuan Behemoth. Apparently FEV made their bodies constantly release growth hormones while simultaneously allowing them to live seemingly forever. There were also reports that the rate of growth in individuals from this batch of Meta-Humans has been observed to increase exponentially if they engage in cannibalism; larger quantities of FEV from their fallen comrades enters their bodies, speeding the process up.

*This is why Fawkes, an original inhabitant of Vault 87 and the oldest known Meta, was only the size of an Overlord, about twelve feet tall, while there were much younger Super Mutants that were Behemoths, with a height of up to twenty five feet. As one of the only three intelligent members of his kind hailing from the Capital Wasteland, he didn't partake in the flesh of his fellows, making him grow at a slower rate than his barbaric brethren, the majority of whom won Darwin Awards for their early deaths due to the inherent stupidity and aggression prevalent among their kind; they could never hope to live long enough to become behemoths.*

Kig-Yar: Kig-Yar have features similar to that of birds of prey as well as reptiles; their legs are sinewy and muscular, and are reverse-jointed in a similar fashion to birds, and they have sharp claws on both hands and feet. Being carnivores, their jaws are lined with rows of razor-sharp teeth; some have far more numerous teeth, and eat the flesh of fallen enemies and live prisoners. They have extraordinary senses of sight, hearing, and smell. While Kig-Yar have hollow bones and are physically frail, they are capable of moving quickly to evade harm.

Magnetic Accelerator Cannons: A large coilgun, much like the Sergeant's beloved Anti-Material Sniper Rifle, that serves as the primary offensive weapon for UNSC warships. Larger versions are used as orbital defense platforms. MAC guns are the only non-nuclear weapons in the UNSC arsenal capable of effectively reducing or destroying Covenant capital ships' energy shields. Smaller shipborne versions can take as many as three hits to overload a shield while an orbital platform can put a hole through any Covenant vessel even with fully charged shields.

Meta: Short for Meta-Human, which was the designation given to the once-called race of Super Mutants upon joining the Postwar nations. They're mutated humans, products of infection by the FEV. They are much taller and muscular than pure strain humans, and typically have green, blue, gray, or yellowish skin. Immune to disease and radiation, they are gifted with superhuman strength and endurance. Although the oldest of their kind are completely sterile, the rapid regeneration of their cells caused by FEV makes them virtually biologically immortal, but not immune to death from injury. There are younger generations that are fertile, but it takes nearly three times longer for a single Meta fetus to develop.

Necro: Short for the designation of Necro-Human, they were the race once known as Ghouls in the wasteland, and have to be manufactured intentionally for the most part. The only accidental transformations into recently Necros resulted from working on the nuclear generators of starships or the slipspace drives that propel them. They're decrepit and rotting, zombie-like mutants. They're the recipients of intensive, elongated radiation sickness which decays their skin and ligaments. Paradoxically, they also have greatly extended overall lifespans and are allegedly immune to, and even brought back to health by, the hazards of background radiation and nuclear fallout.

ORION Project: The ORION/SPARTAN-I Program was an all volunteer force composed of the best soldiers of all races from the Marine Corps and special forces branches of the military. The members of the ORION/SPARTAN-I program were all augmented soldiers, using new training methods and the latest breakthroughs in biochemical developments. The SPARTAN-I training regime was very difficult and included many tests both mental and physical, including work done in the lab. All sixty-five initial volunteers made it through the training and augmentation procedures and were placed on active duty some time after completing their training. The SPARTAN-Is performed specialized, high-risk operations including: counter-insurgency operations, unconventional warfare, direct action and black operations.

Pip-Boy 4000: It uses an ultra-modern super-deluxe resolution graphics and has the capability to store large amounts of information and transfer data to and from holodisks and data-tubes, making it the obvious choice for military use. It has the ability to atomitize physical objects and store them inside its data banks, seeming as if to magically conjure and banish items from and to another realm. The term re-quip means that someone has withdrawn a physical object from their Pip-Boy's data bank, while ex-quip means that they've deposited something.

Sangheili: are a saurian species of fierce, proud, strong, agile, and intelligent warriors, as well as skilled combat tacticians. The Sangheili are named after their home planet, Sanghelios. Due to their skill in combat, the Sangheili have formed the military backbone of the Covenant for almost the entirety of its existence. They are humanoid with a reptilian body structure, quadruple hinged mandibles with conical teeth, and a binary vascular system.

Unggoy: They are the lowest-ranking species in the hierarchy, and are frequently mistreated by almost every higher-ranking race. Unggoy are primarily used as laborers, slaves, or in combat situations, as cannon fodder. They are considered weak in comparison to their superiors, because they perform the majority of the physical labor required by the Covenant and they do not have much knowledge compared to other Covenant species. They are short and stocky beings who possess round heads, and exoskeleton with wrinkly skin. They have high-pitched voices and stubby limbs, making them almost comical to humans.

Wanamingo: They are strange mutant animals that live mostly underground. They were designed as FEV-tailored weapons for waging war on other countries and they escaped into the wastes. In that aspect, they are similar to Deathclaws. Wanamingoes have an exceptional life span, but by the year of 2241, they started to die out. They hatch from eggs laid by the Wanamingo Queen, a large and grey of color Wanamingo which the others fearlessly protect. They aren't intelligent in the usual sense, but they do seem to have a hive-mind mentality...

Zeta Shields: Inertia suppression fields are an advanced derivative of the personal force field shields used and developed by the aliens of Mothership Zeta, hence the naming scheme. Anybody equipped with these shields will glow somewhat and have a field of light distortion around them; this increases the damage resistance and threshold of a person enormously, protecting them during combat immensely and making them ridiculously difficult to kill.

* * *

**A/N: If you would kindly**** review, favorite, follow, and share the story with communities, I would greatly appreciate it. As a perfectionist, I take great pride in my work and even more so in the fact that I don't have a BETA Reader going over every single detail. If you notice something grammatically or mechanically incorrect, please let me know. If there is a difference in lore between this and the source material that you dislike, that is either on purpose for the sake of meshing the two fandoms into a single universe, or simply to make the story that much more interesting in my opinion.**

**What would you rate each of the below categories?**

**1. Plot Progression  
2. Characterization****  
3. Environmental Imagery  
****4. Emotive Descriptions**  
5. Action Sequences  
6. Verisimilitude  
**7. Grammar and Syntax**  
**8. Writing Style**  



End file.
